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“What?” she snapped. Her eyes shot daggers at him, and good god, he couldn’t help but smile.
“Um, excuse me, ma’am. I think there’s been an emergency.” He felt some of the guys come up behind him, someone chuckling in the background. Archer had half a mind to push whoever it was back there down the stairs.
Molly huffed but stepped aside to let them in. They’d done this too many times before. “Thereisno emergency. Youknowthere’s no emergency! Why the fuck do you keep coming?”
“Ms. O’Hara, your landlord has the smoke detectors hooked up to a monitoring station. Anytime the alarm goes off, it alerts the station, who alerts us,” Big Mike said. “Talk to your landlord about moving it.”
Archer looked over the kitchen, taking note of the ample spice rack on the wall and the two pans on the stove.
“What’s for dinner?” He turned to Molly, who crossed her arms and glared.
“None of your fucking business. You can go now.”
“Ah, well,” he said, sauntering over to her as best he could in the large gear. “You’re cooking interrupted our dinner. So I was curious about what could possibly be so important we had to come here.”
She pushed up against him, standing on her tip-toes so their noses almost touched. There was fire in her eyes, and Archer didn’t know if he wanted to stoke it or stroke it.
“Well, Archer, as we’ve been over before,” she hissed, “it’s not. My. Fucking. Fault. So I’m sorry you missed your take-out pizza but this wasted my time as much yours. Trust me.”
“Whoah! Hey, now,” Big Mike said, looking hurt. “No need to slam my wife’s homemade enchiladas. Whatever you have against Jarhead here, keep that between you.”
Molly flinched, her doe eyes darting to Big Mike before returning to Archer. They weren’t as angry, but Archer knew if he said the right thing, she’d turn back to flames.
“I’m sorry, Mike. I just don’t understand why this asshat works with you, and I don’t know why he’s always on duty when I’m cooking.”
“Look, princess. This is a volunteer gig, and we’re lucky if we get a stipend or a small annual bonus. As for why I’m always here when you call,” Archer laughed, “We work 24 hours on, 48 off. So change your cooking schedule.” He looked her up and down, annoyed at how much he enjoyed the sharp peaks of her nipples pointing through the thin fabric of her top, or the way her shorts did her thick legs justice. But it almost didn’t matter how good she looked, when he saw her expression of distaste. “Or, if you had an ounce of decency, you could change your attitude.”
“Get out, you asswipe.” She started pushing him through the guys, to the door, their laughter bouncing off the walls of her apartment. “I’ll never change anything for you.”
She slammed the door behind them, and the guys walked down the steps to the truck. Being around her was the most exhilarating thing, and he tried to push aside how much his heart was pounding.
27
The bookstore was empty, save for Molly who decided to stop in and keep June company on her lunch break from the veterinarian’s office. June knew it was more to rant about her run-in with Archer last night, but she didn’t mind. Dragan had been mostly MIA since that dreadful night, only responding with short answers and an ask to see his extended family off before they left for the airport in a couple days.
Of course she agreed, but that didn’t stop her from being upset at how quickly he shut her out.
“Are you even listening?” Molly said through a mouthful of salad. They were sitting on the swivel barstools behind the counter, June desperately thinking about losing the store while her friend droned on and on.
“Sorry, sorry. What, Archer was a dick and you were a dick back and then he was an even bigger dick?” June turned back to the computer, trying to make the numbers add up.
“I mean… Basically. But still.” Molly took another bite, watching the front door.
“Why don’t you guys, I dunno, fuck already?”
“Why don’t you and Dragan?”
“Low blow, Mol. Low blow.” June’s face heated and she returned to the bookstore’s point of sale system.
“Is it? Is it really? Any lower than you telling me to fuck the asshole who can’t do his job?”
June swiveled to face her friend, heat coursing through her body. “I don’t know why you can’t get it through your head — Archer and none of the other firefighters can do anything about your fucking smoke detectors. And it just so happens that Dragan isn’t really speaking to me right now, and at this point I don’t even want to speak to him.”
“I need you to take a chill pill,” Molly’s eyes grew wide, and she slowly swiveled her own chair forward. “Fine, I’ll try contacting my landlord — again, by the way, because he hasn’t returned my first four calls — and what the actual fuck is going on with Dragan?”
June picked at her cardigan sleeve. She hadn’t told anyone about their arrangement. In hindsight, she knew her friends would tell her how stupid it was, how risky. And she didn’t think Dragan would want her to divulge his own issues to someone. She realized that over the years, she had relied too heavily on Dragan to be her rock. And while she had tried to offer him the same, she wasn’t prepared for what would happen if he didn’t need her.
If he built up his walls and locked her out.
